Northside bond proposal at $648 million

Updated 9:14 pm, Wednesday, January 15, 2014

SAN ANTONIO - — The bond proposal that the Northside Independent School District board will consider this month will total $648.3 million to improve existing schools and build six new ones, including a new high school.

Northside Superintendent Brian Woods recommended it late Tuesday and said voters likely would decide it in May.

District officials culled the proposal from a 250-member citizens' bond committee's recommendations last year.

For the first time in the district's history, a majority of the bond funding — 55 percent — would be spent on improving existing schools, Northside spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said.

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More than half of its schools are more than 20 years old and some were built in the 1950s and 1960s.

Most of the proposed new campuses would be in growing neighborhoods in the southwestern portion of Northside ISD, near its boundary with Medina Valley ISD.

Northside trustees could modify the proposal and are expected to consider it Jan. 28 at a meeting that starts at 7 p.m. at district headquarters at 5900 Evers Road. If an election is called, it would be held May 10, officials said.

Other items include: buying 129 school buses, building classroom additions, air-conditioning all middle and high school locker rooms and making significant upgrades to dozens of cafeterias, libraries, science labs and fine arts facilities.

It's unclear how Northside voters will receive the package, given pushback in recent years over publicly funded education initiatives, including significant opposition to city sales tax funding of Pre-K 4-SA, an early childhood program, which passed in 2012.

District officials offered two examples of the potential impact of a $648.3 million bond on homeowners' property taxes. If home values increase by 3.5 percent annually, the owner of a house valued at the district average of $164,615 could see tax increases peak in 2019, by $26.72 a month. With no increase in home value, the monthly tax boost on the same house in 2019 would be $14.31.

The proposed bond wouldn't be the district's largest. In 2007, voters approved a $692.7 million bond. All 21 Northside bond proposals since 1949 have passed except one in 1992.

The citizens' committee — made up of parents, senior citizens, students, business representatives, taxpayers, teachers, and other staff — met for seven weeks in the fall to discuss the bond proposal and in December endorsed calling for an election.

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Major elements

New Schools — $274,500,000

Future Sites — $21,250,000

Classroom Additions — $12,000,000

Renovations/Reconstruction/Upgrades — $170,970,000

Infrastructure — $71,840,000

Roofing/Waterproofing — $18,000,000

Safety & Security — $8,280,000

Technology — $47,000,000

Transportation — $15,000,000

Bond Issuance & Management — $ 9,500,000

Total — $648,340,000

Source: Northside ISD

In September, the district passed the 100,000-student enrollment mark. Since 1995, it has asked for a bond every three years to keep up with its rapid growth.

Officials said they were able to wait four years since the last bond election in 2010 because much of the work came in under budget, enough to build an extra elementary school campus.